The present invention relates to a multipotent astrolabe or an instrument for observing stars, more particularly to a multipotent astrolabe which is to improve a rotary star dial and used to determine the positions of various celestial bodies by applying the circular star atlas and taking into account ephemeral time and the projections of the relative positions of the moon, the sun and the stars as viewed from the earth. In addition, the positions of the planets of the solar system are included in the multipotent astrolabe to increase the utility of this instrument in the domain of skywatching.
Our ancestors, for facilitating the investigation and location of the celestial phenomena, developed a lot of instruments such as a chart, a list, a disk or a spherical device to determine the relative positions of celestial bodies thereon. Through practical operations and experiments during the past years, they proved that these instruments were adaptable for the simulation or assistance of the astronomical observation.
A series improvements have been made progressively thereafter. These instruments have been embodied a celestial sphere, an armillary sphere or a rotary star dial as we have seen nowadays.
Among the achievements of our ancestors, I find out that the simple and partable rotary star dial is worth the effort to further improvements incorporation with additional functions in order that a rotatable disk shaped instrument can be worked out instead of the above armillary sphere to perfectly manifest the relationship among astronomy, geography, calendar and time. That's the reason why a multipotent astrolabe has been disclosed.